Contemplation of Feelings

Nyanaponika Mahathera

Editorial: We acknowledge with thanks to Bhikkhu Bodhi
from Buddhist Publication Society (BPS) for permission to extract the article below from
"The Vision of Dhamma"

"To feel is everything!"so exclaimed a German
poet, and exuberant though these words may be, they do point to the key role that feeling
plays in human life. Whether deliberately or not, most people pass their days and nights
in an avid endeavour to increase pleasant feelings and to avoid unpleasant ones. All human
ambitions and strivings are geared to that purpose. From the simple amusements of the
common man to the power urge of the mighty and the creative activity of the great artist,
what is basically wanted is to enjoy pleasure, to gain satisfaction and to obtain
happiness. Pleasant feelings come in many forms, and the longing to experience them in all
their variety and intensity gives rise to courses of action and ways of life as equally
numerous and diverse. To satisfy "the pleasure principle" many heroic deeds have
been performed, and many more that were unheroic. The modern world, particularly, has seen
the craving for physical comfort, emotional gratification and sensual enjoyment expand at
a geometric rate. In every major country thousands of industries and services have sprung
up, employing millions of workers, harnessing all the magic of technology first to excite,
and then to satisfy, the desire for pleasure and convenience. By providing questionable
escape routes, these same purveyors of emotional and sensual titillation also try to allay
the worry, boredom, frustration and discontent so rampant in this present "age of
anxiety."

From this brief survey one may now appreciate the
significance of the Buddha's terse saying that "all things converge on
feelings." The central position of feeling in human life also makes it clear why the
Buddha included feelings as a separate category among the five constituent aggregates of
personality (pancakkhandha) and as a separate mode of contemplation in the four
foundations of mindfulness (satipatthana).

In the precise pinpointing of mental states undertaken in
Buddhist psychology, feeling (vedana) is understood as the bare sensation
experienced as pleasant, unpleasant (painful) or neutral (indifferent). It is
distinguished from emotion, a more complex phenomenon which arises from the basic
feeling, but adds to it various overlays of an evaluative, volitional and cognitive
character. Feeling, in the Buddhist sense, is the second of the five aggregates
constituting what is conventionally called "a person." The specific factors
operative in emotion belong to the aggregate of mental formations (sankharakkhandha),
the fourth aggregate. All the four mental aggregates arise inseparably in all states
of consciousness: feeling, perception, mental formations and consciousness. Because
feeling is associated with emotional factors, the two tend to be confused, but on close
analysis they are seen to be distinct.

Feeling arises whenever there is the meeting of three
factors sense-organ, object and consciousness. The meeting of these three is called in
Buddhist psychology sense-impression, contact or impact (phassa). Sense-impression
is a mental, not a physical, event. It is sixfold, as being conditioned either by one of
the five physical senses or by the mind. This sixfold sense impression is the chief
condition for the corresponding six kinds of feeling born of contact through the five
physical senses and of mind-contact. In the formula of dependent origination (paticca-samupada),
thisrelationship is expressed by the link: "Sense-impression conditions
feeling" (phassa-paccaya vedana). When emotions follow, they do so in
accordance with the next link of dependent origination: "Feeling conditions
craving" (vedana-paccaya tanha).

The feeling that arises from contact with visual forms,
sounds, odours and tastes is always a neutral feeling. Pleasant or unpleasant feelings do
not always follow in relation to these four sense perceptions; but when they do follow,
they then mark an additional stage of the perceptual process, subsequent to the neutral
feeling which is the first response. But bodily impressions such as touch or pressure can
cause either pleasant or unpleasant feelings. Mental impressions can cause gladness,
sadness or neutral indifferent feeling.

Feeling is one of those mental factors (cetasika) common
to all types of consciousness. In other words, every conscious experience has a
feeling-tone, pleasant, painful or neutral, the latter being also a distinct quality in
its own right. The subsequent emotional, practical, moral or spiritual values attached to
any particular feeling are determined by the associated mental factors belonging to the
aggregate of mental formations. It is the quality of those other mental functions that
makes the co-nascent feeling either good or bad, noble or low, kammic or non-kammic,
mundane or supramundane.

Since feeling, in its primary state, simply registers the
impact of the object, in itself it is quite devoid of any emotional bias. Only when
volitional evaluations are admitted will there appear emotions such as desire and love,
aversion and hate, anxiety and fear, as well as distorting views. But these admixtures
need not arise, as the emotions are not inseparable parts of the respective feelings. In
fact, many of the weaker impressions we receive during the day stop at the mere
registering of a very faint and brief feeling, without any further emotional reaction.
This shows that it is psychologically possible to stop at the bare feeling and that this
can be done intentionally with the help of mindfulness and self-restraint, even in cases
when the stimulus to convert feelings into emotions is strong. Through actual experience
it can thus be confirmed that the ever-revolving round of dependent origination can be
stopped at the stage of feeling, and that there is no inherent necessity for feeling to be
followed by craving. Here we encounter feeling as a key factor on the path of liberation
and can see why, in the Buddhist tradition, the contemplation of feeling has always
been highly regarded as an effective aid on the path.

The contemplation of feeling is one of the four
foundations of mindfulness (satipatthana). As such it may be undertaken in the
framework of that meditative practice aiming at the growth of insight (vipassana). It
is, however, essential that this contemplation should also be remembered and applied in
daily life whenever feelings are prone to turn into unwholesome emotions. Of course, one
should not intentionally try to produce in oneself certain feelings just for the
sake of practice; they should rather be taken up for mindful observation only when they
naturally occur. There will be many such occasions, provided the mind is alert and calm
enough to notice the feelings clearly at their primary stage.

In the contemplation of feelings, there should first be a
mindful awareness of the feelings when they arise. One should clearly distinguish them as
pleasant, unpleasant (painful) or neutral. There is no such thing as "mixed
feelings."

Mindfulness should be maintained throughout the short
duration of a specific feeling, down to its cessation. If the vanishing point of feelings
is repeatedly seen with increasing clarity, it will become much easier to forestall the
emotions, thoughts and volitions which normally follow them so rapidly and so often become
habitually associated with them. Pleasant feeling is habitually linked with enjoyment and
desire; unpleasant feeling with aversion; neutral feeling with boredom and confusion, and
also serving as a background for wrong views. But when bare attention is directed towards
the arising and vanishing of feelings, these polluting additives will be held at bay. If
they do arise, they will be immediately recognized as soon as they appear, and that
recognition may often be sufficient to stop them from growing stronger by unopposed
continuance.

If feelings are seen blowing up and bursting like bubbles,
their linkage with craving and aversion will be weakened more and more until it is finally
broken. As attachments to likes and dislikes are reduced by this practice, an inner space
will open up for the growth of the finer emotions and virtues: for loving-kindness and
compassion, for contentment, patience and forbearance.

In this contemplation it is of particular importance to
dissociate the feelings from even the faintest thoughts of "I" and
"mine." There should be no ego-reference to oneself as subject: "I feel
(and, therefore, I am)." Nor should there be any thought of being the owner of the
feelings: "I have pleasant feelings. How happy I am!" With the thought, "I
want to have more of them" craving arises. Or when thinking, "I have pains. How
unhappy I am!" and wishing to get rid of the pains, aversion arises.

Avoiding these wrong and unrealistic views, one should be
aware of the feelings as a conditioned and transient process. Mindfulness should be kept
alert, focused on the bare fact that there is just the mental function of such and such a
feeling; and this awareness should serve no other purpose than that of knowledge and
mindfulness, as stated in the Satipatthana Sutta. As long as one habitually relates the
feelings to a person who "has" them, and does so even during meditation, there
cannot be any progress in contemplation.

To be aware of the feelings without any ego-reference will
also help to distinguish them clearly from the physical stimuli arousing them, as well as
from the subsequent mental reactions to them. Thereby the meditator will be able to keep
his attention focused on the feelings alone, without straying into other areas. This is
the purport of the phrase "he contemplates feelings in feelings" as stated in
the Satipatthana Sutta. At this stage of the practice, the meditator will become more
familiar with the "insight-knowledge of discerning mentality and materiality" (nama-rupa-pariccheda).

Further progress, however, will require persistency in the
mindful observation of the arising and passing away of every instant of feeling whenever
it occurs. This will lead to a deepening experience of impermanence (anicca), one
of the main gates to final liberation. When, in insight meditation, the vanishing moment
of feelings becomes more strongly marked, the impermanent nature of the feelings will
impress itself deeply on the meditator's mind. This experience, gained also from other
mental and bodily processes, will gradually mature into the `insight-knowledge of
dissolution' (bhanga-nana). On reaching this stage, the meditator will find himself well
on the road to further progress.

It is within the practice of insight meditation that the
contemplation of feelings can unfold its full strength as an efficient tool for breaking
the chain of suffering at its weakest link. But considerable benefits can also be derived
from this contemplation by those who, in their daily life, can only devote a little quiet
reflection to their feelings and emotions. Even if they do this retrospectively, they will
soon find that feelings and emotions are "separable." This reflective and
retrospective contemplation will help them to a fuller awareness of feelings and emotions
when they actually occur, and this again can save them from being carried away by the
emotional cross-currents of elation and dejection. The mind will then gradually reach a
higher level of firmness and equipoise, just by that simple procedure of examining and
reviewing one's feelings and emotions.

This, however, should not, and need not, be made a
constant practice. It should be taken up on suitable occasions for a limited period of
time until one has become familiar with the mechanism of feelings followed by emotions.
Such an understanding of the process will result in an increasing control over one's
emotional reactions, a control gained in a natural, spontaneous way. One need not fear
that focusing the mind on feelings and emotions in the manner described will lead to a
cold aloofness or an emotional withdrawal. On the contrary, mind and heart will become
more open to all those finer emotions like friendship, human sympathy and forbearance. It
will not exclude warm human relationships, nor the enjoyment of beauty in art and nature.
But it will remove from them the fever of clinging, so that these experiences will give a
deeper satisfaction than is possible when the mind is overrun by tempestuous emotions.

A life lived in this way may well mature in the wish to
use the contemplation of feelings for its highest purpose: mind's final liberation from
suffering.

__________________________

Venerable Nyanaponika until his passing away in 1994 at
the age of 93 was the senior most Theravada Buddhist monk of Western origin in the world,
both in age and in years in the Sangha. He earned worldwide recognition for his
authoritative expositions of Theravada Buddhism and for his lucid translations of Pali
Buddhist texts into both English and German. His best known book, The Heart of Buddhist
Meditation, has attained the stature of a modern Buddhist classic and has been
translated into seven languages.